Investigation leading to arrest On January 28, 2010, Jessica Lloyd, aged 27, disappeared from her home in
Belleville, Ontario. Investigators identified distinctive tire tracks left in the snow along the north tree line of her property, approximately north of her home. One week after her disappearance, the
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) conducted an extensive canvassing of all motorists using the highway near her home from 7:00 p.m. on February 4, 2010, to 6:00 a.m. the next morning, looking for the tire treads. Williams was driving his
Nissan Pathfinder that rather than the
BMW he usually and an officer noticed the resemblance of his tire treads. These were subsequently matched to the treads near Lloyd's home. He was also charged in the death of
Corporal Marie-France Comeau, a 37-year-old military traffic technician based at CFB Trenton, who had been found dead inside her home in late November 2009. In addition to the four primary incidents, the investigation included probes into 48 cases of theft of women's underwear dating back to 2006. Inside his Ottawa home, police discovered stolen lingerie that was neatly stored, catalogued and concealed. A week after Williams' arrest, investigators reported that, along with hidden keepsakes and other evidence found in his home, they had matched a print from one of the homicide scenes to his boot. In April 2010, Williams was placed on
suicide watch at Quinte Detention Centre in
Napanee, Ontario after he tried to kill himself by wedging a stuffed cardboard toilet paper roll down his throat.
Court proceedings and trial Williams appeared before the
Ontario Court of Justice in Belleville via video link from the Quinte Detention Centre on July 22, 2010, where his next court appearance was set for August 26. Again via video link, Williams waived his right to a
preliminary inquiry and thus had his next appearance scheduled at the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice for October 7, 2010. Williams' lawyer stated then that his client would plead guilty to all charges filed against him. On October 18, 2010, Williams pleaded guilty to all charges. On the first day of Williams' trial and guilty plea, details emerged of other sexual assaults he committed, including that of a new mother who was woken with a blow to the head while she and her baby were asleep in her house. The first day of trial revealed that Williams also had
pedophilic tendencies, stealing underwear of girls as young as nine years old. He made 82 fetish-related home invasions and attempted break-ins between September 2007 and November 2009. Williams had progressed from break-ins, to sexual assaults with no penetration, to finally rape and murder. He had kept detailed track of police reports of the crimes he was committing, logged his crimes, kept photos and videos, and had even left notes and messages for his victims. In a break-in into the bedroom of a 12-year-old girl, he left a message on her computer saying: "Merci" ("Thank you" in French). He had taken thousands of pictures of his crimes, and had kept the photos on his computer. Crown Attorney Robert Morrison presented numerous pictures of Williams dressed in the various pieces of underwear and bras he had stolen, frequently
masturbating while lying on the beds of his victims.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert F. Scott sentenced Williams on October 22, 2010, to two concurrent terms of life imprisonment, with no consideration of parole for 25 years. After his conviction the
Governor General of Canada,
David Johnston, revoked Williams' commission and expelled him from the armed forces. Williams was
stripped of his rank of
Colonel in the
Royal Canadian Air Force as well as his military decorations: the
South-West Asia Service Medal with Afghanistan
clasp and the
Canadian Forces' Decoration (CD) with one clasp. He was allowed to keep his military
pension equal to $60,000
CAD per year as terminating it would require an act of
parliament. After being returned to the Forces, his uniform was burned, his medals were cut into pieces, and his commission scroll (the instrument of his commission) was shredded, actions similar to the components of a
military degradation. His vehicle, a
Nissan Pathfinder, was similarly crushed and scrapped. Williams was initially incarcerated at
Kingston Penitentiary, in the prison's
segregation unit. After the prison began the process of closing, he was moved to the Port-Cartier Institution, a maximum-security prison in
Port-Cartier,
Quebec. On May 10, 2012, the
Canadian Forces announced that it had made a "terrible mistake" by publishing a booklet with a photograph containing Williams in the background and ordered 4,000 copies of the book destroyed. The photograph was incidental to the subject matter of the book, but the image was felt to be offensive. == Personal life ==